Just outside of Jackson City, Missouri, one could find a hydroelectric dam. Smart creation, they were. Able to give power to an entire town, even after the theoretical end of the world had taken place. And in this town, there were people. Not a whole lot, but enough to create a community. Families, living in houses that had been assigned to them by their leader, Maria. Before they'd managed to return the power to the town, they'd all been holed up in the dam itself, but they all moved out once they fixed up the generators. They had a system for everything. Engineers working the plant to make sure it kept going. Guards, keeping watch for infected and hunters. Everything was okay. At least as okay as it could get.

On that particular day, the sun was shining on the town, giving light to the streets and warmth to the people. It had been a tough winter, that was for sure. But the winter was over now, and everything was much easier. Maria was out in the streets doing a little inspection. Sure, it sounded scary, but it was the kind of inspection she really enjoyed. Just going around, asking people if they were having a good day.

"You take care, Julie," Maria said to the woman who smiled and waved at her before going to meet up with her children. Julie's family was one of the families they'd picked up on their last supply run. The number of people in town was growing, and Maria couldn't see that as anything else but good. They were helping people, and it felt amazing. And that was when she heard the shout from one of the roofs at the outskirts of town.

"Supply group returning! Separate the chain-link fence!" The guard shouted. They had fences set up around the perimeter. They knew very well that it wouldn't do anything to keep hunters out, but the infected would have a little more trouble getting through, seeing as how they didn't really know how to open things.

"Tommy," Maria said with a smile and started half jogging towards the place where they'd be coming through. She saw her husband and some other guys from town riding in on their horses, and the guards closed up the fence again.

"Hey, dear," he said with a big smile as he hopped off the horse and walked over to give his wife a kiss. "How's things?"

"All's good," she smiled, a hand on Tommy's shoulder. "Did you get anything?"

"Got ourselves quite the buck, but we're going to have to bring some more guys if we're going to be able to carry it back here without ruining the skin and everything." He said, looking back at the guys he'd brought with him earlier.

"Well, why don't you boys just get ready and I'll fetch some more people?" Maria suggested, and he nodded gratefully. She took off to find some more people they could bring with them, but she could still hear the guards shouting again. What was it now? It sounded like something was wrong.

"H-Hey!" The guard shouted, and Maria turned to Tommy who could still see her. He waved her off, as if telling her he'd take care of it. She swallowed the big lump in the throat and kept moving. She could no longer hear the guards now, and she tried to find some more people to bring.

"You stop it right there! One more step and I'll shoot!" The guard on the roof shouted, but Tommy just chuckled heartily.

"Lower your guns," he said loudly, before approaching the fence. "Well, I'll be damned. You made it back."

"Sure did," Joel said from the other side of the fence, patting the shoulder of the girl next to him. From Tommy's point of view, she didn't look too happy. She was probably just tired.

"Here, help me with this." Tommy said to one of the guards and pointed at the fence. They pulled it to the side and let Joel and Ellie in before closing it up again. "It's good to see ya, big brother," he laughed as he gave the man a hug.

"Good to see you too, Tommy." Joel grinned.

"And you too, young woman. Good to see you're in one piece." He smiled as he ruffled Ellie's hair. She didn't do anything but look annoyed. "Looks like Joel here took good care of you."

"Guess so," Ellie mumbled. Tommy chuckled nervously before looking back at Joel.

"Hey, look... you wouldn't mind helping me out with some stuff, would you?"

When Maria returned with a few more men for Tommy, she saw the two new people that had arrived. She was surprised, to say the least.

"Joel? Ellie!" She exclaimed, jogging forwards to give Ellie a hug. "It's so good to see you again."

"Maria, wanna take Ellie in to town, get'er settled in? We're going out for the buck." Tommy said as he was fixing the rifle strap on his shoulder.

"Uh, sure thing. You boys be careful." She said, and then she was leading Ellie back into town. Quite the short reunion, she noted.

"So," Tommy said as they made their way by foot into the forest. "You made it back in one piece. How'd it go?"

"Oh, it's a... a long story," Joel huffed, not really in the mood to lie to his brother at that moment. "Long story short... Ellie being immune hasn't done the world any good."

"So it's a dead end, huh? That why the girl's so somber lookin'?"

"Yeah... I think she feels as if what she's done has been for nothin'... or somethin' like that." Joel sighed. He couldn't tell anyone what he'd done. It'd ruin his relationship with Ellie, and he didn't want that. She mattered more to him than anything. That's not how he'd pictured Ellie before, but now, she was his reason for living. The one thing that made clinging to humanity worth it. Even if it was all based on a lie, Joel would make it work. He knew he could.

"So, how's the town coming along?" Joel asked, his voice strained as they cooperated to lift the buck above the ground to carry it back.

"It's going really good," Tommy said, heaving a little with his breath. "We're growin' in numbers, too. We're still in the middle of mapping out the town. Lots of cellars and underground places we haven't checked out. Probably some infected that needs to be cleared outta there."

"I'm sure I can help you with that," Joel said, taking a little pause before looking over at Tommy. "That is, if you still have space for the two of us."

Tommy laughed. "Yeah, 'course we do, brother. I've actually had a place held off for you in case you came back. And you did."

...

The days passed. Ellie was still mostly quiet. She sometimes looked like she was somewhere else. Not in the same world as Joel, getting lost in her own space of thoughts and memories. Joel didn't know what to do about it, but he'd decided to give her some space for the time being. Maybe she just needed some time to recover after everything that had happened.

Joel was really helping out in the town. Using his skills as a carpenter from before the outbreak, he helped rebuild some damaged buildings, and even helped making a guard-tower. He knew it'd take a while to get it finished, seeing as how it wasn't exactly easy to get materials, but it was coming along. After one week, it had already started to look a bit like a tower.

"Sure is warm today," Joel said after he hammered in another nail. He wiped some sweat from his forehead with the back of his arm and looked up at the sun, shielding his eyes from the strong light with his hand.

"Damn right," The woman named Joanne said. Joanne was good with tools, Joel could see that much. They'd been working together on the tower for the past two days. They'd talked a bit more with each day, but none of them really said all that much. And it went on like that for another two days, until the day where the sky was grey.

"Think we might be getting some rain today," Joanne sighed. "I think we should get as much done as we can before it comes pourin'."

"Agreed," Joel said from up above, in the middle of hammering in a support beam.

"Say, Joel," Joanne started, and Joel didn't bother turning to her as she talked. He could still hear her, after all. "That girl I saw you come in with... I haven't seen her much. She your daughter?" She asked curiously, making Joel stop what he was doing for a while.

"Well, you're not completely wrong," he huffed, shrugging a little where he hung from the edge of a plank. Joanne didn't really understand how someone as old as him could hammer in a beam whilst hanging by one arm from a plank. It was quite something. "I see her as my own... pretty much."

"I see," Joanne nodded, and before she could say anything, the rain came. They said their goodbyes and headed back to their respective homes. Joel opened the door to the little house they'd gotten. It was quite amazing... a house. Not just a tiny apartment, but a little house. It felt like home. And with his own will, Joel had made it his home. If he believed it was, it really was. He'd settled in. Together with family. Okay, so they only had the first floor of the house. But for just the two of them, they didn't need anything else. He walked over to Ellie's room and knocked on the door. He got a little mumble in reply and figured he was allowed to open the door. He saw Ellie sitting by the worn-down desk she had, scribbling something. That's what she did most of the time those days. Writing or drawing. But Joel didn't know what it was she was making.

"Hey, Ellie," Joel said in a low voice. He still wasn't sure how to talk to her. "I'm home."

"I know," she mumbled, too preoccupied with her scribbling to really care about Joel being back. He sighed and left the room, closing the door behind himself.

...

There was this feeling inside of her. This dark lump in her stomach that made her feel so weak all the time. It had been there after Riley died, but then she met Joel, and it had gone away after a while. Even after all the crap she'd been through, it had been gone. But after the hospital, and after the fireflies, it was back. She wasn't really sure why. Joel had told her what happened. That's that. But something just didn't sit right with her. Yet she had no idea what it was. Once Joel had closed the door again, she'd sighed loudly. She could barely look at him lately. She just didn't know why.

She'd been remembering... bits and pieces of what had happened at the hospital. As if she'd sometimes slightly awoken from her anesthesia. She looked down at her book. She wasn't exactly the best at drawing, but one could definitely see what it was she was trying to make. And she'd been getting better, too. There was a man there, and he held something in his arms. A girl in a hospital gown. Ellie still didn't understand why Joel had carried her out instead of just waiting until she woke up, or why he acted as if she was this precious treasure that he'd protect with his own life.

That night, Ellie heard the sounds through the walls. Joel was shifting and panting and groaning. She was old enough to understand what it could be, but she also knew Joel enough to know what it actually was. Night terrors. He'd started having them after they returned to Jackson County. She hated it. She hated that he had to be so messed up, especially now that everything was supposed to be fine for the first time in so long.

She heard the gasp that typically came when he woke up, and then the shuffling as he got to his feet to go to the kitchen or whatever.

"Jeez, old man," she mumbled, hugging her pillow closely. "You're kinda fucked up, aren't you?"

...

"Ellie! We're doin' some exploration work today, wanna come with us?" Joel asked from the kitchen.

"I think I wanna clean this place up a little today!" Ellie replied from the living room, shuffling about to find a bucket or something.

"Alright!" Joel said as he went to get his shoes before going into the little storage room they had to get his weapons. He brought a silenced pistol, a bow and his backpack. He'd be with plenty other people, so it shouldn't be a problem to pack lightly. He met up with Tommy and some other guys and girls, and they went down into a sewage system. It seemed empty for the most part, but they kept moving. They had to make sure they knew everything about the town they were in, and that nothing dangerous was lurking down there.

"Ah, shit," Joel said in a thick dialect as he saw the spores show up in the light from his flashlight. "Spores." He said loudly, and they all put on their gasmasks. One of the men had a flamethrower.

"If we find the fungus growth, we can burn it down and eventually the spores will die." He said, his voice a bit muffled from the mask. Joel nodded slowly before propping up his bow and arrow just in case. Where there were spores, there could also be infected. And just as he thought, they heard the sounds after a while.

"Get down," Tommy whispered, and everyone crouched down. "Me and Joel will go check it out first," he said, and the two of them crept forwards, checking around the dark corner. There were two runners, groaning and hissing where they stood. The brothers nodded at each other. Joel spun his bow and aimed at the head of the first runner. Tommy snuck up behind the other one, and as soon as he raised his knife to stab its neck, Joel shot his in the head. Easy and effective.

They burnt all the fungus they could find and then returned to the surface.

"Job well done, everyone," Tommy smiled at the others. There was a man there, named Steve, who had a question.

"Was that what was left?" He asked, furrowing his brows a little as if he didn't really believe that it could have been that easy.

"There are several other sewer sections throughout town, so we don't really know what's waitin' for us down there. But we're gonna take that some other day. Y'all got the rest of the day off, go on now." He chuckled. They all smiled and left to do something else, whilst Joel stayed behind. "So..." Tommy started, looking at Joel questioningly. "How are things with you and Ellie?"

"I... I'm not sure," Joel sighed. "She's kinda distant, but... I guess she has some sort of teenage depression or something like that." He said, shrugging his shoulders a little.

"Well, I wouldn't doubt it. It's a rough world we live in." Tommy said, putting his hands in his pockets. "What do you think about her? Like, answer me honestly."

"I'm... I'm not sure, Tommy. I think that... part of me wants to be her father. I mean, in some way, that seems like the best way to think of it. She needs someone to look after her, so why not a real parent?"

"I'd be careful, if I were you," Tommy mumbled.

"What was that?" Joel asked, frowning deeply.

"I said, I'd be careful if I were you. If you indulge yourself too much in those thoughts, thinking you're her dad and all... I don't know man, I wouldn't want you to remind yourself too much of the past." He said, trying to sound reasonable.

"And why's that, huh? Why's the past such a big problem?" Joel growled, about to get angry. Brothers do fight, after all.

"Hey, just think about it for a second, big brother. You've raised two people in your life. You raised me, and you raised Sarah. Neither situation turned out too good."

"Tommy! You'd better watch what you say." Joel said angrily, taking a step closer to his brother.

"You remember just as well as I do that our relationship was messed up when our parents weren't there anymore. It didn't work out for either of us. And you weren't exactly-"

"Weren't what?!"

"You weren't exactly the best father for Sarah." He said, venom in his voice as he spoke. "And you know it damn well yourself, so if you remind yourself too much of that, who knows what'll happen? You gonna get guilty about what happened to Sarah and let that out on Ellie?"

"You shut that mouth of yours!" Joel exclaimed. "I was a young, lonely father, and I had to work my ass off to earn the money I needed to take care of Sarah! I wasn't there for her because I simply didn't have the chance!"

"And you do now?"

"It's the end of the world, Tommy! I've got all the time in the world!" He growled, and then he turned on his heel and left.

"Careful, big brother," Tommy sighed under his breath. "Shouldn't go tearin' up old memories like that. Bad stuff will happen."

...

A part of Joel knew that Tommy was right. If he let himself believe that Ellie was family, he'd just be reminded of Sarah. Of all the shit they went through, and of losing her. And that's why he had those dreams. He'd pushed himself too close to the old, bad memories, and they triggered something inside of him. Something he couldn't control, a darkness that would eat away at him from the inside. So he woke up every damn night with sweaty palms and a pounding heart. He bore something heavy on his shoulders. The blame of killing all those people and leaving mankind to rot, just for one girl. And now she was his responsibility, and he absolutely couldn't let that shatter. He did what he did for him and Ellie, and if that broke, then it would have been for nothing.

"Seriously," Ellie said from the opening of the door, and Joel jumped a bit in surprise. He turned to look at her. She stood there with a long t-shirt covering her bare thighs, a tired look on her face. "This shit needs to stop, Joel. We can't keep doing this. I can't keep doing this if I can't know what's bothering you."

"Ellie..."

"You're a fucking mess. Sort your shit out. I don't care how, just find a way. If you don't, I will. I think you got some skeletons in your closet, Joel, and I also think it's time you faced them." She said with an annoyed tone to her voice.

"Ellie, everything's fine as it is. I don't have any skeletons-"

"Of course you have fucking skeletons, Joel. You're an ancient man. You've murdered people in cold blood. Of course you have skeletons. Probably from before this shit even started. Before the outbreak." She said. She clenched her fists by her side. "If you can't face the ghosts that's haunting you... if you can't pull yourself together and stop beating yourself up about all the shit in your past, I'm not sure how we're supposed to keep this up."

Joel sighed heavily. Hiding things from Ellie wasn't easy. She might not have known why he was feeling that way, but she knew that something was wrong. It impressed Joel, really. No one had been able to see through him before. Not like that. "My problems... are my problems." Joel said slowly. "I can deal with'em on my own. They don't affect you, because I'll still protect you like I always have, and I'll-"

"Bullshit! Damn right they affect me!" Ellie suddenly exclaimed, waving her arms about. "You're shutting everything inside, Joel! Do you have any idea how fucked up that is? You're like a time bomb!"

Rubbing his eyes tiredly, Joel let out a groan. "I'm not hurtin' anyone but myself."

"Seeing you...!" Ellie started, clenching her fist in front of herself. "Seeing you like this..." She mumbled, her voice suddenly low as she turned her back at him to leave the room. "Seeing you like this makes me fucking sick. It's pathetic."

Yeah, Joel thought. Something had to be done.